Brad Fullmer (20) steals second base ahead of the tag by Todd Walker in the eighth inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        ANAHEIM — Sometimes, the difference between winning and losing is the difference between making a good or bad pitch at one crucial juncture in the game.

        In each of Joey Hamilton's last two starts, he's made a bad pitch at a bad time, and it has cost him and the Reds dearly. Sunday, it was a 2-2 slider to Anaheim's David Eckstein in the second inning.

        The slider didn't slide. Instead, it stayed up in the strike zone and Eckstein smashed it to left field for a grand slam. That was pretty much the ballgame.

        There was another 2 1/2 hours of to play, but the Reds were beaten. The Angels ended up winning 7-4 before a crowd of 35,501 on a breezy and cool day at Edison Field.

        “That killed me, and in effect, killed the team,” Hamilton said.

        The Reds remain alone in first place despite the loss. The St. Louis Cardinals fell to Kansas City 3-2, so the Reds remain atop the National League Central for the 45th consecutive day.

        The Reds lost two of three to the Angels in Cincinnati's first interleague series of the year. The Reds, the surprise team of the NL, started interleague play against Anaheim, the surprise team of the American League. The Angels are a scrappy, tough bunch who specialize in making breaks for themselves. That's how they've won 19 of their last 25 at home.

        Hamilton, the Reds' opening day starter, is 1-3 with a 9.64 ERA since coming off the disabled list (pulled groin muscle) on May 22. The Reds and Hamilton say he's physically fine.

        “I think he threw pretty well,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “He did a couple of little things that reached up and grabbed him.”

        Said Hamilton: “I felt good. I just didn't make a pitch when I needed to.”

        The outing was almost a numerical carbon copy of Hamilton's last start — an 8-5 loss to the Cardinals on June 4. He went five innings in each game. On June 4, he gave up six runs. Sunday, he gave up seven.

        Albert Pujols broke the June 4 game open with a two-run homer in the fifth. You expect that out of a slugger like Pujols. You don't expect that out of Eckstein, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound leadoff hitter.

        Although with the bases loaded, you should. Sunday's grand slam was Eckstein's third of the year, and he has only one home run that isn't a slam.

Reds pitcher Joey Hamilton consults with Don "The Sheriff" Gullett and catcher Jason LaRue with the bases loaded in the second inning before the next batter, David Eckstein, hit a grand slam. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Eckstein had gotten the Angels on the board in the first. He led off with a flare to right that Austin Kearns made a dive at, but got past him for a triple. Eckstein scored on Darin Erstad's groundout.

        The second started with a routine fly out. Tim Salmon then reached on a broken-bat infield single. An out later, Bengie Molina hit a broken-bat single to center. Hamilton's first mistake of the inning came when he walked the ninth hitter, Adam Kennedy.

        “The walk was the worst thing,” Hamilton said. “I can live with broken-bat hits. I'll give up my share of them.”

        Eckstein was 3-for-4 against Hamilton coming into the at-bat. Hamilton also was aware of Eckstein's recent slams.

        “I knew about them,” he said. “But I wasn't thinking about it when I'm throwing a 2-2 slider.”

        Said Boone: “It was a real lousy pitch.”

        Still, it barely made it over the 5-foot fence in left field, and, had left fielder Adam Dunn been playing at normal depth, he would have likely caught it. But Dunn was playing shallow and toward center.

        The Reds are big on hitter's tendencies.

        “I would have had a chance (if I was playing at normal depth),” Dunn said. “You know how I field, so I'm not saying I would have caught it, but I would have had a chance.”

        Dunn said the tendencies are usually right: “We're way ahead on that.”

        But being way behind to Angel lefty Scott Schoeneweis wasn't a good place to be. Schoeneweis went 6 1/3 innings and gave up one run on seven hits. When he left, the Angels had a 7-1 lead. The Reds' Jim Brower held it there with three innings of one-hit relief.

        The Reds rallied in the ninth. Russell Branyan started the inning with a long home run to center, his first hit as a Red. Branyan now has three RBI in two days as a Red.

        Two outs later, Juan Encarnacion singled, Sean Casey walked and Dunn singled.

        The Angels were concerned enough to bring in closer Troy Percival. Kearns greeted him with a two-run single.

        That made it 7-4 and brought the tying run in the form of Aaron Boone to the plate. But Percival struck him out to end it.

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